Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/288

 282 Southern Historical Society Papers.

necessary, as the " Rebel" forces would easily be dispersed in that time, and a peace conquered.

The result of the first battle of Manassas was a startling awaken- ing to the folly of such a boast, and staggered the confidence, so hastily and unwisely adopted by a misapprehension of the Southern character.

On the other hand, the success of the Confederate arms at Manas- sas was, at the same time, damaging to the Southern cause by cre- ating over-confidence, and causing the Southern people to under- estimate the fighting qualities of the Northern soldier.

It was no uncommon thing to hear it said in the early days of the conflict that "one Southern man could whip five Yankees," incon- siderately failing to bear in mind that the Yankees were largely the same race as ourselves, and undervaluing the fact that organization and discipline will make good fighting soldiers of almost any race. So that the war relieved us also of many errors into which we had fallen in measuring the character of the Northern people.

Assuming then, that the personnel of both armies were equal in courage, in fortitude, in intelligence, and in all those qualities that make good soldiers it cannot be denied that the South was greatly at a disadvantage, in comparison with the North, in every other particular.

In the first place, the North was largely superior in numbers in the numbers of her own people, and unlimited in the drafts which she could make on foreign countries. She had a thoroughly equipped, organized, regular army organized, by the way, in its perfect staff appointments, by that greatest of war secretaries the United States Government ever had, Mr. John C. Calhoun, and developed and improved upon by one equally great in all the essen- tial elements of statesmanship, Mr. Jefferson Davis an army capable of almost indefinite expansion. She had also a navy in fighting trim, organized for prompt action, with a large merchant marine sub- ject to her demands, all manned with trained sailors and seaman. The North had a government, complete in all its departments, in full vigor and operation, well supplied with revenue and material of war. She had workshops for the fabrication of arms, material to supply them, and the whole civilized world from which to draw whatever was best and most desirable in modern improvements.

On the other hand what had the South ? She had, it is true, separate State governments, with power to enlist troops and defend their own borders, but these the North also had, in addition to her